Pictures

Our azaleas! Aren't they nice?

Banana lining up his cars for a race.

We were so glad to have some friends of ours visiting from Iowa this weekend! They had spent their Spring Break in Port Aransus. This is Buffalo Wings with Reverend J.

Mrs. J and me. And my largeness.

The Js!!!!

The J kids and the Tasty Names kids.

The lovely MJ!

The handsome JJ!

Good friends, Chicken Nugget and MJ.

Cutie pic of Mrs. J and Noodle!

Easter weekend, coloring Easter eggs.

The finished product! The Easter Bunny was very pleased.

Love and miss you all very much!

And hey, be like the J family! Come see us! We love you and we want you to come visit!!!!!!!!!!

Buffalo Wings' Exhaustive Baby Boy Name List

Buffalo Wings gave me his list. It is WAY shorter than my list. He gave the meanings, but not the origins.

Here goes:

Daniel - God is my judge
Ethan - strong, firm
Ian - God is forgiving
Xavier - new home owner
Eric - eternal ruler
Alec - defending men
Asher - happy
Casey - brve
Alexander - warior
Jason - healer
Andrew - warrior
Kyle - narrow, straight
Devin - poet
Eli - ascend, my God
Benjamin - son of my right hand
Jesse - wealthy, gift
Immanuel - God with us

What do you think?

My Brother Matt

I love my brother Matt! He is a wonderful brother and he always has been. He and I have always been good friends. When I was a teenager, we used to go places together and just hang out. He was never embarrassed to have me hanging around with his friends. He was just the best kind of brother to have.

One time, when I was in probably junior high school, I walked into my bedroom and Matt was talking on the phone. As he talked, I played dress up with him. He talked and I adorned him with ribbons, bows, necklaces, and anything else I could find. We took pictures of it, but I think that my mom has them. Matt never told me to leave him alone. He just talked and let me play dress-up with him. It was hilarious.

All of my friends love my brother Matt. It's because he is so cool! He always talked to my friends when they came to the house. He made them laugh. Matt is very funny! My kids love Uncle Matt. He is their favorite. He plays with them and makes up songs for them and gives them nicknames. He makes up crazy stories to put them to bed by. He's nutty and crazy and fun.

It is really hard not to find Matt charming and likable. About a year and a half ago, he started dating an outstanding lady who also found him charming and likable. They both found each other so charming and likable, in fact, that they've decided to get married!

Matt and Lisa, we couldn't be happier that you two are getting married. We love you both so much. We're thrilled that Lisa will be joining our family.

Exhaustive Baby Boy Name List - Mrs. Donut's List

Yes, I've been working on this - hard!!!! It was easy to name the girls. We had a hard time choosing Banana's name. We're having a much harder time choosing Number Four's real name.

I will list name, meaning, and origin:

Paul - small (Latin)
Patrick - noble (English)
Adrienne - person from Hadria (Latin)
Amil - hopeful (Hebrew) **
Andre - manly (French)
Andrew - manly (Greek)
Asa - born at dawn (Japanese)
Asher - blessed, happy (Hebrew)
Auren - heard; laurel (American)
Aurum - glowing dawn (Latin)
Ayman - holy, righ-handed worker (Arabic)
Avery - elf-ruler (English)***
Azhar - shining, bright (Arabic)
Bennett - little blessed one (Latin)*
Charlie - free man (English)
Devan - poet (English)
Ephraim / Efrem - very fruitful (Hebrew) **
Ethan - expected (Indian - Sanskrit)
firm, strong (Hebrew)
Eli - height (Hebrew)
Elias - the Lord is my God (Hebrew)
Emery / Emory - work ruler (English) **
Emil - strive, excel, or rival (German) (same pronunciation as Amil)**
Evan - God is good (Welsh)
Hosea - salvation (Hebrew)
Ian - God is gracious (Scottish) *
Isaac - he will laugh (Hebrew)
Isaiah - God is salvation (Hebrew)
Israel - wrestled with God (Hebrew)
Jack - God is gracious (Hebrew / English)
Lane - from the lane (English) ***
Lewis - famed warrior (English)
Malachi - my messenger (Hebrew)
Nehemiah - God has comforted (Hebrew)
Oliver - elf army (English) ***
Ren - lotus (Japanese)
Reuben - behold, a son (Hebrew)
Reuel - friend of God (Hebrew)
Rhory / Rory - red king (American / Irish) **
Rian - king (Irish)
Riel - God is my strength (Spanish)
Roan - red color (English) **
Rohan - ascending (Indian, Sanskrit) **
Shae - hawk (Celtic / Gealic)
Simeon - to be heard (Greek)
Silas - man of the forest (Latin)
Wesley - from the west field (English)
William - strong-willed warrior (English)
Xavier - the new house (Spanish)***
Zachariah - God has remembered (Hebrew)

*don't love the name, but love the meaning
**can't decide which spelling
***don't love the meaning, but love the name

I feel kind of like a big nerd publishing this post! I like a lot of names. It's true. But Number Four can only have two of these at the most. And Buffalo Wings has to like the names! There are so many nice names out there. I am obviously very indecisive. I'll post BWs exhaustive list later. His is WAY shorter than mine!

Baby Boy Names

With only 100 days to go before the new little mister arrives, we really don't have much time to pick out a name for this kid! :o)
Help, please????

Buffalo Wings likes these names (this is not an exhaustive list):

Alec
Asher
Ian
Ethan
Daniel
Eli
Devin
Xavier

I'll post more of what he likes later.

I like:

Patrick
Simeon
Isaac
Isaiah
Avery
Devin
Xavier

I like the name Avery a lot, but I don't like the meaning of it: "leader of elves."

Do you like any of the above-mentioned names? Do you have anything to add to the list? Our poor kid. We may end up calling him Number Four.

Spring Break = Fun!

We are having Spring Break! RIGHT NOW!

We didn't travel anywhere. Gas is too expensive (wish we could have gone to Arkansas.). We're not doing any big projects. But we are still having FUN!

Here's how:

I can get up and make a REAL made breakfast in the mornings! Like blueberry muffins or scrambled eggs and bacon or whatever sounds breakfasty good.

We can have friends over any night of the week! One of our friends came over for supper last night, and we have another friend coming over tonight.

We can clean the house slowly. Very slowly. No, cleaning house is NOT fun, but it's more fun cleaning slowly day by day than trying to cram it all into a Saturday. Laundry included.

We don't have to get up early!

We don't have to go to bed early (even though I still have been)!

Even if the kids get up early, we don't have to get out of our p.j.s for hours!

We can hang out as a family all day - watch a movie, go play outside, go to the library, or whatever.

I can take a nap EVERY DAY!!!!

And many, many other fun and relaxing things. I heart Spring Break!

Buffalo Wings is All Abuzz

I've been neglecting to put up people's new sites, sites that they've changed, etc. I just got around to it today. Check out the new one that Buffalo Wings has - you'll see the link to it under "family" to the right. Leave him comments! He will love it.

Because I Don't Want Them to Be Like Me

I wasn't a great student in high school. I wish I'd had a better grasp of how not applying myself and not being a better student would affect me later. I could have gotten better scholarships. I could have cultivated self-discipline. To an extent, I didn't care. Another part of it was that I thought I wasn't smart. I must have driven my teachers crazy.

I hear it all the time now:
"That kid is really smart, he could really understand, if only he would apply himself."

But how do you teach that? How do make a kid want to learn? How do you make it matter to the student that education is important? How do you make the student care that he has such an advantage in the world, by being offered a free education through the age of 18?

I don't know. I don't know if you can. No one could teach me. I had to learn it much later.

I went to college. Even had some small scholarships. And I had a dear professor who recognized something when he saw me: That I was capable, but didn't know how to study. After five minutes of talking to him, and about two or three tips, I got it. I knew how to make things stick in my mind. And I made the Dean's list and the President's list. Things I'd never accomplished in high school, though all that time I could have, yet it took me till then to start. Why? Sometimes I still don't know.

I'm sure there are kids at school that are a lot like me, who start out thinking they are stupid (mine was mainly because of math, and it started in the fourth grade), and then an attitude of, "Well, things will just work out." And then you have these great kids, who could be superb students, that have their teachers pulling their hair out.

I don't want my students to be like me. So many times when I could have studied, I didn't. Even though I didn't have (what I later learned) the best study skills, I could read and understand the English language. I had teachers who were always willing to help me. I had friends who did great in school, and parents who wanted me to do well. I could have graduated with a much higher GPA. And I'm sure I could unpack it all and get down to the psychology of it all, the whys and the whats and etc., but when it comes right down to it . . . it was all my fault that I didn't do better than I did.

And every time I think that I am about to become a teacher, I feel so disappointed in myself. And I feel a little bit like a hypocrite. Maybe a lot like one.

Once in seminary, during a very hard class, I was pulling a C. Granted, it was a strong C! But it was a C. I was looking over my grades and my friend was standing nearby. She could see that I was crestfallen and asked me what was the matter. I showed her. Trying to cheer me up, she said, "Hey, just remember, C stands for Commencement!"

But I just didn't feel that way. All those years after high school . . . thinking back on high school, I just laugh at the way I feel now! I certainly didn't feel that way in high school!

And I know that high school is about becoming who you are, discovering things about yourself, turmoil, angst, etc. etc. . . . and I wasn't a bad kid or anything . . . I just . . . could have done better. And I wish I had.

And what am I going to say to my students? How am I going to make it matter to them? How am I going to encourage them? What will I do? How will I invest in them? How will I make it real, articulate to them that it is important, what they do right now? How will I reach the ones that were like me, that could just do better?

I won't be able to help caring about it. I care about it now when I see the students and watch them, and I'm only a substitute.

I'm scared, I'm unsure, I'm hopeful, I'm not going to live like I did in high school. And I'm not going to let who I was in high school make me who I am now. I've learned from it. I hope I'll remember what I've learned. I hope I can make an impact.

Poor Kids

I have lots of things running around in my head, things of social importance. I should write about some of these things here on this blog. And one day I will. But for now, I just like writing about the funny things my kids say! Sorry. I'm sure ya'll are getting bored. But this morning's funny was too funny NOT to post:

I "made" breakfast this morning. As in, I actually turned on the oven. And popped in the French toast sticks. Yep. I'm a regular gourmet chef.

Chicken Nugget sat down to her outstandingly prepared breakfast. She usually gets some very healthy and filling . . . cold cereal (ahem). She looked at the French toast sticks and said:

"Wow! We haven't had a made breakfast since Grandma was here!"

Unattended Children

I shared this with some of you via e-mail, but I just HAD to put it on the blog! I thought it was too funny. Hope you enjoy! And don't leave your children unattended. You'll be sorry! :o)